Category: Medical Malpractice

We place a great deal of trust in our doctors and other health care professionals. We trust them with our health and well-being. We trust that they will uphold the duty that comes with the standards of their profession. Unfortunately, there are often medical treatment errors that occur and can have serious adverse consequences for a patient. While no one is infallible. There will be errors and they may not be the result of any negligence on the part of your health care providers. Other times, however, preventable medical errors occur because of the negligence on the part of your doctor and team of medical professionals. When these types of errors occur and you suffer as a result, you may be able to bring a medical malpractice suit to seek compensation for the harm you have sustained. There are a range of medical errors that can lead to a malpractice claim. One common type of medical malpractice claim is that which stems from misread test results.

Misread Test Results and Malpractice

Doctors rely on medical test results to guide a patient’s diagnosis and, subsequently the treatment the patient receives. Doctors and other medical professionals receive training in reading tests ranging from radiographic studies like x-rays, CT scans, and MRIs to other lab tests like blood tests and more. Sometimes, the results of these tests are misread and can lead to some serious complications for patients.

A misread test result may lead to a failure to diagnose a patient at all. It may lead to a misdiagnosis of a patient. It may also lead to a critical delay in properly diagnosing a patient. This type of error can mean that a patient is not treated or receives improper treatment for their medical condition. Mistreatment or failure to treat can, in turn, lead to a worsening of the patient’s existing medical problems or even the development of new medical problems.

As previously mentioned, not every incident of misread test results is going to merit a medical malpractice claim. Certain elements need to be present for this to happen. In order to prove a misread test results claim, you will need to first prove that there was a duty of care owed to you. This is often pretty clear as patients are owed a duty of care by the medical professionals they retain to treat and diagnose them. You will also need to prove that this duty of care was violated or “breached.” This can be the trickiest part to prove. You need to be able to show that the medical provider failed to act in a way that a similarly situated, similarly qualified medical provider would have acted under the same or similar circumstances. You will also need to prove that the breach in the duty of care caused you injury. Finally, you will need to prove that you suffered damages. Damages are the negative impacts and consequences that resulted from your malpractice injuries. Damages can range from financial to physical to mental and beyond.

Philadelphia Personal Injury Attorneys

If you have suffered because your health care provider failed to properly read your medical test results, do not hesitate to contact the trusted medical malpractice attorneys at Cooper, Schall & Levy to discuss your options for recovering just compensation. Contact us today.

Did you know that it is not just doctors, surgeons, and hospitals that can be held liable in medical malpractice claims? It is true. A wide variety of medical professionals owe a duty to patients to provide them with reasonably reliable care. This includes emergency medical technicians (EMTs). This makes sense considering who crucial the initial diagnosis and treatment that happens at the ambulatory stage can be. Errors in evaluating and treating a patient at that stage can have devastating, and even life-threatening, consequences.

What EMT Errors May Lead to a Medical Malpractice Claims?

EMTs, along with paramedics, are commonly the first responders at the scene of a medical emergency. Should they be properly trained, these professionals should be able to assess life-threatening medical conditions, as well as provide emergency medical treatments and life-support services at the accident scene. Additionally, EMTs are tasked with preparing patients for transport as well as safely transporting patients to the hospital, providing medical support to the patients until everyone arrives at the hospital or emergency care center.

The importance of EMTs performing their duties with the utmost care cannot really be understated. They can literally hold a person’s life in their hands. This makes it easy to understand the fact that they are held to a legal duty of care to the patients they serve. In most cases, EMTs diligently perform their duties. Sometimes, however, they fall down on the standard of care they are obligated to provide and people needlessly suffer as a result. This is considered malpractice and an EMT can be held legally responsible for paying damages a person sustains as a result of the malpractice.

In order to successfully bring a medical malpractice claim against an EMT, the injured party, the patient, must show that:

• The EMT owed him or her a duty of care. This duty of care is a duty to the patient to act reasonably. Reasonableness of the actions is usually compared to how a reasonable, similarly situated EMT would have acted under comparable circumstances.
• The EMT breached the duty of care owed to the patient because the EMT failed to act in a way that a reasonable, similarly situated EMT would act under comparable circumstances.
• The breach of duty resulted in injury to the patient.

Common breaches of a duty owed to a patient by an EMT, or, in other words, common reasons why a medical malpractice case is brought against an EMT include:

• EMT delayed response to the accident scene
• EMT failed to bring adequate medical equipment to the accident scene
• The ambulance equipment was improperly used
• The EMT failed to properly diagnose the patient
• The EMT failed to follow standard evaluation protocols, like checking the breathing and heartbeat of the patient
• The EMT failed to properly administer medications (either the wrong type or wrong dosage of a medication

Philadelphia Personal Injury Attorneys

If you have suffered due to the negligent action or inaction of an EMT at an accident scene, talk to the trusted personal injury attorneys at Cooper Schall & Levy. We will discuss your legal options with you and how we can fight to enforce those legal rights so that you are properly compensated for the harm you have suffered. Contact us today.

We rely on our doctors and treating medical professionals to accurately monitor our health as well as address any health problems. Vision problems, in particular, can cause a great deal of fear and stress. After all, most of us depend on our vision as an essential tool to get through our everyday lives. Ophthalmology is the branch of medicine that addresses the eye, its functions, anatomy, pathology, and, of course, its treatment. Ophthalmologists are the physicians who specialize in treating eye problems. While it can be difficult to consider, sometimes ophthalmologists fail to provide their patients with the level of care they deserve. This lapse in quality of care can, in turn, cause injury to the patient. If you have suffered due to the negligence of your ophthalmologist, you may be able to bring a medical malpractice claim seeking compensation for the harm you have suffered.

Overview of Ophthalmologist Malpractice

In order to establish malpractice against an ophthalmologist, a person needs to first establish that a doctor-patient relationship existed. In a doctor-patient relationship, the doctor owes a standard of care in treating the patient. More specifically, the standard of care is a reference to the level of care that a reasonably prudent doctor (an ophthalmologist, in this case) in a similar geographical area would have used under the same or comparable circumstances. To substantiate a claim that your treating ophthalmologist breached the requisite standard of care, evidence is generally presented in the form of your medical records as well as supporting opinions of expert witnesses. In addition to demonstrating that the ophthalmologist breached the standard of care, you must be prepared to prove that this breach was the direct cause of the harm you sustained. 

An ophthalmologist may have committed any number of errors that substantiate a breach in the standard of care he or she owed to a patient. Some examples of ophthalmologist error that may lead to a medical malpractice claim include:

• Surgical errors
• Lasik errors
• Failure to adequately monitor a patient post-surgery
• Errors in type or dosage of medication
• Misdiagnosis (wrong diagnosis) of an eye condition
• Failure to diagnose an eye condition
• Negligent conduct causing eye infection

These types of errors committed by an ophthalmologist can have truly devastating consequences. Due to any one of these errors, a patient may suffer from:

• Double vision
• Blurred vision
• Partial loss of vision
• Total loss of vision
• Eye infection
• Corneal haze
• Injury to the eye flap

Errors in properly treating a patient’s eye condition often result in the patient needing to further undergo eye treatments and procedures that would not have been necessary should he or she have received proper care in the first place.

In a successful medical malpractice claim, an injured party may be compensated for the cost of medical care incurred due to the harm sustained from the lapse in adequate medical care. Additionally, the injured party may be entitled to recover for lost wages and loss of future earning capacity. Pain and suffering damages are also recoverable in a medical malpractice claim.

Medical Malpractice Attorneys

If you or someone you love has suffered due to an ophthalmologist providing substandard care, the dedicated medical malpractice at Cooper Schall & Levy are here to help. We will fight for you as we pursue your right to recover compensation from the harm you have suffered. Contact us today.

Your treating medical providers owe you, their patient, a duty of care right from the start. This is true when you walk into your primary care doctor’s visit, it is true when you are getting lab work done, and it is true if you need emergency treatment in a hospital emergency room. While emergency rooms can often operate at or above capacity and may be chaotic in nature, you are still owed a duty of care. Should your doctor and other treating health care professionals fail to uphold this duty, and you are injured as a result, you may be entitled to compensation through pursuing a medical malpractice claim.

What is considered emergency room malpractice?

A focal point in any medical malpractice case is the applicable standard of care. The law requires doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel to uphold a certain standard of care when treating patients. They are required to provide the same level of treatment that a similarly situated, competent medical professional would have provided under the same circumstances. Failure to do so means that there has been a breach of duty. If the breach of duty caused preventable harm, then medical malpractice may have occurred. It is critical to establish that a duty was owed, there was a breach of the duty owed, and harm resulted from the breach of duty.

Some of the more common errors that are seen in emergency rooms include:

• Anesthesia errors
• Surgical errors
• Medication errors
• Failure to order proper lab testing
• Errors in interpreting lab test results
• Improperly discharging a patient
• Failure to attend to a patient as fast as necessitated by their condition

These kinds of errors can occur for a number of reasons. For instance, in an emergency room setting, mistakes can be made due to the facility being overstaffed, operating above capacity, or simply due to carelessness on the part of the staff. Sometimes, there are unsanitary conditions in an ER that can harm patients seeking treatment. One of the most common errors to occur in the emergency room setting is misdiagnosis or missed diagnosis. In a case of misdiagnosis, a patient is diagnosed with the wrong medical condition. In a case of missed diagnosis, a patient is not diagnosed with any medical condition when they are in actuality suffering from a medical condition. Errors in diagnosis can have devastating and lasting impacts on the health and well-being of a patient. Diagnostic errors can mean that a patient does not receive the treatment they need. It can also mean that a patient receives the wrong kind of treatment. Either way, the health of a patient can suffer as a result.

Pennsylvania Medical Malpractice Attorneys

If you have suffered harm due to emergency room negligence, trust that the medical malpractice attorneys at Cooper Schall & Levy will fight for you. We will tirelessly pursue your legal right to full and fair monetary recovery for your injuries. Contact us today.

Doctors and other medical professionals have a duty to patients to provide them with a certain standard of care in all aspects of treatment. This includes prescribing and dispensing both the proper dosage and type of medication. When healthcare professionals fail to provide patients with the requisite standard of care, there is an error in medications as a result of this negligence, and the patient is harmed because of the error, then the patient may seek compensation for the damages sustained through bringing a medical malpractice claim. A medical malpractice claim allows a person harmed by medical negligence to recover compensation for things like medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.

Errors in Medication

Medications are truly modern marvels. The proper medication can help someone suffering cope with the pain, it can treat symptoms, and it can treat illnesses. Medication can also, however, cause great harm to a person and put them at risk for certain harm. The risk of harming a patient can exponentially increase if the patient is prescribed or receives the wrong type of medication or the incorrect dosage. In fact, there are many types of medication errors that can end up harming a patient, including:

• The patient is administered the wrong medication
• The patient is administered the wrong dosage of medication
• The patient receives mislabeled medication
• There is a failure to warn the patient of a medication’s common side effects
• The patient is prescribed a medication that the patient is allergic to
• The patient is prescribed a medication that adversely interacts with other medications the patient is taking

These types of medication errors are often caused due to the negligence of the prescribing physician or the pharmacy responsible for dispensing the medication. Negligence can show up in the form of poor communication among medical staff. It can also involve system errors. Medical staff are often overloaded with work and are on the clock for a long period of time. The resulting exhaustion can all too easily lead to errors in medication.

An error in medication does not necessarily mean that the patient will be able to bring a successful medical malpractice claim. In order to substantiate a medical malpractice claim, the patient will first have to prove that there was a doctor-patient relationship. With this relationship comes a duty of care the doctor owes the patient. Doctors and healthcare providers are obligated to act in a way similarly situated medical professionals would act under the circumstances. For instance, with regard to medication, a medical professional would be required to be aware of things such as any other medical conditions of the patient, patient allergies, and any other medication the patient may be taking. The patient must be able to show that the medical provider failed to uphold this duty and that this breach of duty was the direct cause of the patient sustaining harm.

The harm resulting from the medication error can be devastating. The patient may be subjected to adverse reactions to the medication. An unintended drug overdose may also be the result of such a mistake. Furthermore, the patient may suffer due to a delay in receiving the proper care and the proper medication they should have received in the first place.

Pennsylvania Medical Malpractice Attorneys

If you have been harmed by a medication error, you may be entitled to compensation for the harm you have suffered. The dedicated medical malpractice attorneys at Cooper Schall & Levy will talk to you about your legal options and fight for you to receive the compensation you deserve. Contact us today.

Surgery is a big deal. It is a major medical procedure where you are trusting your doctor and a team of medical professionals with cutting into your body in the name of improving your health in one way or another. This is a substantial amount of trust. Think about the anxiety a person feels going into surgery. Imagine this person coming out of anesthesia only to realize that the surgery was performed on the wrong part of the body. Devastation may be putting it mildly. The emotional impact of being the victim of such an error would be enough to try and handle alone, but the physical impact can be severe on top of this. Wrong site surgeries are almost always the result of medical negligence. 

If you have been the victim of wrong site surgery caused by medical negligence, you may bring a medical malpractice seeking compensation for the damages you have sustained.

The Universal Protocol for Wrong Site Surgeries

Due to an increase in the number of wrong site surgeries occurring, the Joint Commission, the accrediting body for hospitals, developed the Universal Protocol aimed at improving patient safety in surgical procedures. The Universal Protocol involves three steps, including:

• Pre-surgery verification: The surgeon is to verify that he or she is going in to perform the correct surgery on the correct site on the correct patient. This step should involve discussing things with the patient and asking for the patient to verify his or her identity as well as the surgery he or she is there for.
• Marking the surgery site: The Joint Commission protocol recommends that the surgery site should be marked prior to surgery. Again, the patient should be involved in this step in the process.
• Performing a time-out: The surgeon, as well as the entire surgical team, should pause prior to the start of surgery to address any questions or concerns. The whole surgical team should agree that the correct surgery is being performed on the correct site on the correct patient.

Failure to comply with the Universal Protocol may show that medical negligence occurred and resulted in harm to the patient. When proper care is not exercised in relation to a surgical procedure, patients suffer. The victim of a wrong site surgery has experienced a trauma. Surgery and recovering from surgery is often painful. Additionally, the patient still needs treatment for the health issue the planned for surgery was supposed to address. The delay in receiving the proper medical treatment can cause exacerbation of the existing illness on top of meaning that the patient will have to go through another surgery and another hospitalization period. This means more pain, more medical expenses, and more time away from work.

Pennsylvania Medical Malpractice Attorneys

If you have been the victim of a wrong site surgery, you have been through such an ordeal. The pain, suffering, and anxiety you have experienced is likely severe. The medical malpractice attorneys at Cooper Schall & Levy will pursue your legal right to full and fair compensation for the harm you have suffered. We fight these legal battles for our clients so they can focus on their health, well-being, and recovery. Contact us today.

Hospital emergency rooms are often chaotic. They can be crowded. They can be understaffed. They can be overwhelming. All this considered, it may not surprise you to hear that medical mistakes are all too common in emergency room settings. Because they are common, however, it does not mean that they are acceptable. In fact, mistakes resulting from negligence on the part of an emergency room doctor or another medical care professional often form the basis for medical malpractice claims. A medical malpractice claim allows the patient injured by the receipt of substandard medical care to seek compensation for the harm they have suffered.

What is considered an emergency room error?

Some of the most common emergency room errors pertain to the misdiagnosis of a patient. Doctors and other treating medical professionals can often feel rushed in the emergency room setting. There are many people to see and oftentimes there are patients that demand immediate and intensive medical care. This time pressure often leads to overlooking or downplaying a patient’s symptoms which, in turn, can lead to a misdiagnosis or a missed diagnosis. In other words, a patient may be improperly diagnosed and receive treatment below the appropriate standard of care as a result.

Errors in diagnosis can also lead to other common emergency room errors such as improper discharge. If a patient has been improperly diagnosed, they may be released to go home without receiving the care they need or with the wrong follow-up treatment information. This leads to things like the patient’s condition worsening or the development of other health issues. A diagnostic error may lead to the discharge of a patient that really should have been admitted to the hospital for further testing.

Diagnostic errors can also involve other common emergency room mistakes. For example, lab results are commonly misinterpreted in an emergency room setting. Furthermore, it is also common for a doctor to fail in the ordering of the appropriate tests in order to properly diagnose an emergency room patient.

Medication mistakes are also common in emergency rooms. A patient may be prescribed or administered the wrong medication during their stay at the hospital. In other cases,a patient allergy is not properly noted and medication triggering that allergy is admitted. There can also be errors in the dosage of the medication that is administered or ordered. All of these medication related errors can cause catastrophic, sometimes fatal, injuries to patients. 

Another common mistake to occur in an emergency room, also attributable to the chaotic setting and time pressure involved, is mistakes in the actual performance of a procedure. ER doctors and nurses must handle a wide range of medical issues, and sometimes this means that a doctor or nurse may have limited or no experience handling a particular medical condition and will have to perform a procedure that they have never had to do before. This, of course, increases the likelihood of errors occurring during the procedure.

Pennsylvania Medical Malpractice Attorneys

If you have been to the emergency room and received substandard medical care that led to an injury, a worsening of a health condition, or the development of a new health condition, you may be able to seek compensation for the harm you have suffered. A medical malpractice claim allows you to do this and the dedicated medical malpractice attorneys at Cooper Schall & Levy are prepared to fight to enforce your legal rights. Contact us today.

A medical malpractice claim allows a person who has been harmed by medical negligence to seek compensation for the losses they have sustained. A victim of substandard medical care can needlessly suffer permanent, painful, and debilitating health consequences all because a doctor or other medical professional failed to provide them with the level of care they deserved. That is why the law allows the patient to seek monetary reimbursement for economic and other losses incurred as a result of negligence on the behalf of a treating health care provider.

What damages are available in medical malpractice cases?

The main focus on damage awards in a medical malpractice case is compensatory damages. Compensatory damages are intended to make the plaintiff “whole” again after the financial, physical, and mental harm they have suffered due to medical negligence. Compensatory damages include economic damages that are easily quantifiable such as:

• Cost of medical care
• Cost of future medical care
• Lost wages
• Loss of future earning capacity

Non-economic compensatory damages are those damages that are difficult to quantify. Non-economic damages include things like pain and suffering. They also include emotional distress and loss of enjoyment of life.

There is no cap on medical malpractice damages in Pennsylvania. This means there is no limit on the amount of compensation available to a plaintiff for both economic and non-economic damages. Other states do have caps in place and it sometimes forces a plaintiff to decide whether or not it is financially feasible to bring a medical malpractice claim. This is true even when the medical negligence is clear and even when the harm suffered by the plaintiff is supported by solid evidence. This is why legislatively imposed caps on medical malpractice damage claims are often controversial.

There is, however, a cap on punitive damages. It is exceedingly rare, however, for punitive damages to be awarded in medical malpractice cases. This cap can only be avoided if the plaintiff can demonstrate that the defendant medical professional intentionally caused him or her harm. If punitive damages are awarded, Pennsylvania caps them at three times the amount of actual damages awarded in the case. In addition to the cap, it is also important to note that 25 percent of the punitive damages award is given to the Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error (MCARE) Fund.

In addition to being familiar with the types of damages available in a medical malpractice case, you should also be aware that Pennsylvania has a periodic payments rule that applies in cases where future damages exceed $100,000. Future damages include those damages that will be incurred in the future due to the harm that resulted from medical malpractice. It includes things like the cost of future medical treatment and physical therapy. When a future damages award is over $100,000, it is required to be paid in installments.

Pennsylvania Medical Malpractice Attorneys

The law allows victims of medical malpractice to seek compensation intended to set things as right as they can possibly be. The dedicated medical malpractice attorneys at Cooper Schall & Levy are committed to fighting for our clients and their legal right to compensation for the harm they have suffered due to negligence on the part of a medical professional. Contact us today.

A recent report issued by the ECRI Institute names the misuse of surgical staplers as the top health technology hazard, trumping other common hazards such as sterile processing errors. The ECRI went on to say that substantial injuries, including death, result from the surgical stapler errors every year. Injury can occur not only from the misuse of the medical instruments but also as a result of defects in the products themselves. 

The FDA reports that close to 110,000 surgical stapler incidences since 2011. These incidences resulted in 412 deaths and 11,181 serious injuries. If you were injured due to misuse of a surgical stapler, you may be able to bring a medical malpractice claim seeking compensation for the harm you have suffered. If you were injured due to the malfunction of a surgical stapler, you may be able to recover compensation under a products liability claim.

What Injuries Are Being Caused by Surgical Stapler Errors?

Surgical staplers work very much like the ones that sit on office desks across the country, except they are used to close wounds and surgical openings. The staple acts as a substitute for needing to hand stitch or suture incisions and openings. Unfortunately, we all know what it is like to use a stapler and have it not work. Staplers can jam or fail to close the staples so what you are stapling is securely fastened. These same errors can occur with surgical staplers.

While some surgical stapler errors are the result of human error, many are due to the stapler itself malfunctioning. In fact, the risk of stapler malfunction has been known by stapler manufacturers for a very long time, but they have been less than forthcoming with doctors and medical facilities about these problems. Surgical stapler errors can have devastating consequences. Complications from such errors may include:

• Internal bleeding
• Sepsis
• Internal organ damage
• Death

A surgical stapler failure can often take days to identify which makes the likelihood of permanent damage more likely to occur. Sometimes the complications may require a permanent need for an ostomy bag or indefinite digestive issues. There may also be the need for additional problems to address the complications caused by the surgical stapler error.

The type and severity of the damage caused by a surgical stapler error will greatly depend on the location and nature of the error. Errors near sensitive areas, such as vital organs, can have tragic consequences. Internal organs can hemorrhage, causing internal bleeding and organ damage. A misfired staple can become unintendedly embedded in tissues or organs. If a staple fails to completely close or properly seal a wound, infection or sepsis can be the result of bacteria entering the wound. 

All of these injuries are caused by negligence in the use of the surgical stapler, or in the manufacturing of the product itself.

Contact Our Medical Malpractice Attorneys Today

If you have been injured by a surgical stapler, come discuss your options with the dedicated injury attorneys at Cooper Schall & Levy. We will talk to you about legal options to explore so that you can be compensated for your injuries and other losses. Contact us today.